Rebirth of the Doctor
by enigma939
Summary: The Time War is over. The Time Lord who ended it has regenerated. But can a new face mask the horrors of the old? Can he find the strength and hope within himself to become the Doctor again? Set between 'Day of the Doctor' and 'Rose'.
1. Prologue - A New Life

**Rebirth of the Doctor**

**A/N: **So this is my first fic in a long time...and more importantly, it's my first _Doctor Who _fanfic. I've chosen to tackle what I think is a fairly ambitious subject, and I sincerely hope I do justice to it.

Basically, this story is set between _The Day of the Doctor _and the Series 1 premiere 'Rose'. It follows the perspective of the newly-regenerated Ninth Doctor and how he deals with the immediate aftermath of the Time War, something we've never really seen tackled in any official material to my knowledge.

**Prologue – A New Life**

_London, 2013_

"Well gentlemen, it's been an honour! And a privilege", he said.

"Likewise", 'Sandshoes' replied.

"_Doctor_", 'Bowtie' said smiling. Emphasizing the name.

Their name. _His _name.

Beaming at his future selves indulgently, he continued, "And if grow to be _half _the man that you are", he turned towards Clara, "Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed".

"That's right, aim high", she laughed, hugging him. Clara Oswald. His future companion. The girl who had reminded him of who he was. The girl who had reminded him of the promise he'd made. The girl who had inspired him to save an entire race.

The 'impossible girl'.

Curious phrase...where did _that _come from?!

A thought suddenly struck him. Something he'd almost forgotten, in the triumphant spirit of the moment. "I won't remember this, will I?"

Bowtie replied, "The time-streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no".

He'd known the answer of course, deep down. But hearing it said, hearing _himself _say it...it pricked him a little nonetheless.

He mused out loud, "So I won't know that I tried to save Gallifrey, rather than burn it. I'll have to live with that." Putting on a brave face he added, "But for now, for this moment, I _am _the Doctor again!" He beamed once more at his future selves "Thank you!"

Well then, he thought to himself, time to go.

"Which one is mine?" he asked out loud, looking at the three TARDIS's lined up in a row. So different, yet the same. "Ah", he said, noticing the battered looking one at the end of the line. He'd have to clean it up quite a bit. Looking at the other two next to it, he knew it was practically a _fait accompli_.

He stepped into his TARDIS, and shut the door behind. Shut the door on his past. Or was it his future? It was so easy to get tenses mixed up when one was a time-traveller...

No, he resolved as he activated the TARDIS, it was the past he'd shut the door on. The future awaited him. New lives. New faces. New companions. New adventures. He'd only caught a glimpse, and the glimpse was glorious indeed!

He felt like his old self again. He felt reinvigorated. He felt renewed.

Renewed...

He first saw it from the corner of his eye. The golden light seeping out of the palm of his light hand. Energy..._regenerative _energy.

The regeneration process had begun!

"Oh yes, of course. I suppose it makes sense", he muttered to himself. The Sisterhood of Karn had made him a warrior. But the war was over. It was a time for peace. There was no use for warriors anymore. It was time to be someone else again. It was time to be...the Doctor.

"Wearing a bit thin", he observed as he leaned back, letting the energy consume him. "I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time!"

Look at you, talking to yourself like a senile old man, just when you're becoming young again, he scolded himself.

There had been times when he'd feared the change. Feared dying...and being reborn as a new man. But this time, knowing he was on a path to a better future, knowing the happy days that were coming his way, he welcomed it. Embraced it like an old friend.

The energy coursed through his ancient body, like warmth healing his every wound, like a flame re-igniting his spirit. He felt his skin changing, his bones shifting, his face re-shaping into another form. His eyes becoming sharper, livelier. His mind...at total peace. A blank. A clean slate.

He spent an eternity in this state. And the eternity ended as soon as it began. The last of the energy was expelled. The warmth was gone.

_He _was gone.

He stood in the middle of the machine. The wheezing sound engulfed him. At once familiar and alien.

He stood in the middle of the vast room. Standing there, surrounded by all the empty space, a profound feeling of isolation washed over him.

He was alone.

He didn't know why, but he was so alone.

He walked up to the control panel. His hands moved over the instruments. He knew them and didn't know them. He didn't know how. Or why.

His hands grasped a lever. Out of sheer, instinctual curiosity, he pulled it.

A siren echoed through the room. Followed by a voice. A voice that jolted him.

"ALERT! ALERT!" it sounded. And suddenly, an apparition materialized in the middle of the room. A hologram, he somehow knew.

It was an old man. A fierce looking old man in a tattered coat, with a scarf and a bandolier.

He _knew _the man. It felt like looking into the face of...an old friend. A long-forgotten face from a childhood dream. Was it?

"_TARDIS Systems compromised! Emergency landing initiated!_" the apparition spoke in that voice both known and unknown before it disappeared.

Suddenly the wheezing stopped. There was a feeling of settling. Of arrival.

Yes, he had arrived. Somewhere.

Instinctively, he moved towards the doors. The opened as he approached.

He stepped out into the glare of the sun. He raised a hand, shielding his eyes.

He was in a field. An open field stretching out for miles around him.

He walked towards the sun. Its warmth enveloped him, just like the other warmth had. The warmth in which he'd been born.

He walked for miles and miles. He walked for eternity. He walked without destination, without urgency. Without time.

He walked until exhaustion finally overcame him and everything around him went black.


	2. Ch 1 - Awakening

**Rebirth of the Doctor**

**Chapter 1 – Awakening**

_He had a dream._

_And in his dream, he'd saved Gallifrey!_

_He knew it was a dream, but he basked in it nonetheless._

_The Daleks were gone. The Time Lords were saved. The universe was at peace again._

_He'd done it!_

_But then the dream ended, and he saw reality. He saw millions of Daleks surrounding the planet. And he saw the planet being engulfed in energy. An unholy energy that chilled the core of the universe._

_And in a flash of light, it was gone. They were all gone._

_He was alone._

_Alone._

He woke up suddenly, startled by the feeling of wetness against his forehead. Instinctively he grabbed his attacker in a choke-hold.

"Who are you?" he asked sharply, in a voice he was sure was not his. "What are you doing to me?"

His assailant was gasping for breath. It suddenly occurred to him that it might be wiser to release the man from his hold and actually let him speak. Funny...why hadn't that occurred to him before?

"Step away from him! Put your hands behind your head!" came a loud drawl behind him. He whirled around to find himself faced by a middle-aged man in overalls, aiming a shotgun at him.

"All right! All right!" he said, releasing the man who was in his grasp, and raising his hands. He looked at the gunman quizzically.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first man, rubbing his bruised neck, bend down and pick up what he'd dropped. A wet towel...

He looked around him and saw the inside of a barn.

The violence of the moment suddenly seemed so...incongruous, he reflected. He had no idea why he'd done that.

"Look, I think there's been a misunderstanding", he said.

The gunman seemed a little surprised. "You foreign or something?" he asked.

"Foreign? Well, yes, I suppose so. I dunno really", he said, giving the first answer that came to mind.

"What's your name?" the other man demanded.

"My name?" he wondered out loud. What _was _his name indeed? _Think_, he told himself.

And suddenly the answer came to him, clear as day.

"The Doctor", he said, and smiles. "That's right! The Doctor".

"Doctor Who?" asked the gunman.

"Just the Doctor", he replied. Realizing the other man was not convinced, he added, "Look. I seem to be a little lost. Do you mind telling me how I got here? And where is _here_ anyway?"

The gunman relaxed a little. He lowered his gun.

"Bartonsville. Six miles outside Dallas", the man replied. "My son", he gestured towards the other man, "found you out cold on our farm, two days ago".

"Two days?" he said. Strange, he thought, it seemed a lot longer since...since what?

"You were in a pretty bad shape. Terrible fever. Thought you were dying! Almost called the police...except we didn't want the trouble. Things are tense around here, what with the President coming around in a couple of days. Besides", he gestured towards his gun, "if you were any trouble, I can more than take care of it".

"Well, I can assure you, I'm not any trouble", he said. "Well, I must be off". He looked towards the open doors of the barn.

"Wait a minute", the younger man, the first man's son said. He looked towards his father, as if asking if it was alright to go ahead. The father nodded.

"What's this?" the son asked, taking out a long metallic object from his pocket and holding it up.

"Ah!", his face brightened. "My screwdriver!"

"Your...screwdriver?" the boy looked puzzled.

"Yes", he said taking it from the boy. He switched it on. The red light ignited the tip. All of a sudden, the older man's shotgun fell apart.

"Oh, sorry", he said, looking at the dismantled weapon dropped to the ground and then at its bewildered owner. "Think it went to the disarmament setting".

The man stepped back. "You...you're not a Rusky are you?"

"A 'Rusky'? No of course not, don't be absurd. I'm a Time Lord!" he replied.

"Time Lord?!" the son exclaimed. "What the hell?"

"Yes, I'm...", he was about to say the words again but stopped suddenly. A sudden cold washed over his body. His tone changed abruptly. "Where am I?" he asked again.

"I just _told _you", the man said. "Bartonsville...near Dallas..."

"Yes, yes...Bartonsville, near Dallas, which is on the United States of America, which is on Earth...I know, I know. The question is...when?" he asked.

"When? You mean like, the date?" the son asked.

"Yes...smart boy", he said. Finally, he was getting somewhere.

"November 20th...1963", the boy replied.

"1963", he whispered to himself. The year was familiar. _Very _familiar. Why?

He shook his head, tried to clear it of extraneous thoughts. He needed to regain focus. He needed to know, what had happened, and how he got here. Or more to the point, where _had _he been?

"Look...who _are _you? Really?" the father asked.

"When you found me, in the field...was there something nearby? A...police box", he said. Yes, that was it. The police box. The TARDIS. He needed to get back to the TARDIS.

"There was nothing nearby, no", said the son. "Funny though...Old Man Jeffrey said he'd seen something weird. A telephone box in the middle of a field. Of course, I didn't believe him...he's drunk most of the time but..."

"Yes that's it!" he exclaimed. "Can you take me there? Please"

The older man hesitated. Then he nodded. "Okay. We can do that". He gestured towards his dismantled weapon. "Now if you could put my gun back together".

He looked down at the weapon. "I-I'm sorry. I...I don't really like guns", he said suddenly. A vision suddenly pricked his consciousness like a needle. A memory of holding a gun. A weapon so different from the one on the barn floor...yet still, fundamentally the same. He remembered firing it, blasting into a wall, the words NO MORE.

No more.

"No more", he muttered to himself.


	3. Ch 2 - Recollection

**Rebirth of the Doctor**

**Chapter 2 –Recollection**

The older man's name was Timothy. And his son was Hank. Timothy was a farmer...his family had owned the farm for generations. His son though wanted to join the US Marines. He wanted to fight in 'the war'.

"Wars are never a good idea", he said to Hank, over the sound of the truck.

"You've been in a war?" Hank asked him.

"How did you know?" he asked, perhaps a tad sharper than he should have.

"You...you used to say things. When you were asleep. One of the things you kept saying was "The war is over". Or something like that. Anyway, you definitely kept mumbling about a war" Hank said.

"What else did I say?" he asked.

"Well, you said this word. Didn't know what it is. Something like 'Kalek' or 'Kaled' or 'Dalel'..."

"Dalek", the Doctor said suddenly, and the word caused another eruption in his sub-consciousness.

"Well yeah...sounded something like that", said Hank. "Oh and you mentioned a name...sounded like 'Cara' or 'Clara'. Yes, I'm sure it was Clara".

"Clara", he muttered to himself. The name meant nothing to him. He didn't know if it should have.

"You...you've got amnesia or something?" Hank asked. "I mean...you don't seem to know your name...or how you got here".

"No, I remember my name", the Doctor replied, after contemplating Hank's question for a moment. "As for how I got here...that's what I'm going to find out".

o o o

"Oh boy! Jeffrey wasn't seeing things", Timothy said, as he stared at the blue police box.

The Doctor stared at the TARDIS, as though it were something from a dream. Then, he slowly walked towards the doors, opened them, and stepped inside.

He stood in the middle of the control room. A ghostly silence seemed to permeate through the interior. He stared at the sterile white walls, and the roundels. For the first time, they felt so..._alien_. So machine-like. The corals in contrast were a much more re-assuring sight. Perhaps the time had come for some radical redecoration...

"Holy shit!" Hank's voice sounded in his eyes, breaking his reverie. "It's...its bigger on the _inside_!"

The Doctor looked at him. "Yes it is", he replied with a wry smile. He remembered a time, so long ago, when people used to say that all the time. But then, this was the first time he'd let someone else into the TARDIS in...how long exactly?

"What the hell is this?" Timothy demanded.

"It's a TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space", he replied. "Takes you anywhere and any_when _you want to go".

"It's a...spaceship?" Hank asked.

"Well, yes. A spaceship _and _a time machine...rolled into one", he said. "Now please be quiet, I'm trying to think", he snapped. He leaned in front of the panel, closed his eyes, and went into a meditative trance.

In his mind, he went back...back...he tried to think back to where he was before.

He remembered the war. The fall of Arcadia. The cries of suffering and madness. And death.

And then...what?

The _desert_. He remembered the desert! Walking for an age in the sand. Going...to the barn. Yes! _His _barn. His childhood home.

And then...his memory seemed to end abruptly. It was a blank. A complete blank.

What happened in the barn? What had he done? He had done _something_...of that he was sure. _Something _had happened. The answers seemed tantalizingly within reach...somewhere at the back of his mind.

He opened his eyes and sighed. He stroked his chin to find it clean-shaven. That surprised him. He hadn't really paid much attention to his appearance for a long time, as far as he could remember...but he was pretty sure last he'd checked that he'd grown a beard.

He walked over to another part of the console and fumbled with the buttons. He was _sure_ there was a mirror here somewhere...

A mirror elevated from the console. "Ah! There it is", he said and walked over to it, staring at the face in the mirror.

A stranger's face stared back at him. A younger face than the one he remembered. A completely _different _face.

He felt dislocated. The stranger's face swam in and out of his vision. He couldn't even tell what it looked like...just that it wasn't _his_.

"Doctor?" Hank asked. He turned around and looked at the father-son pair, who looked both confused and concerned.

"You okay?" Timothy asked.

"Yes...I'm fine. I think" he said. Then, almost to himself, he added, "I think I've...regenerated".

"Regenerated?" Hank asked.

"Yes", the Doctor replied. "Yes that explains...why I can't remember." He suddenly smiled at the other two. "Yes that explains everything...post-regenerative trauma".

"You're not making any sense", Timothy said. Then he looked around and added wryly, "I don't suppose anything makes sense right now".

"Yes, well...it's culture shock. Happens to the best of us", the Doctor said.

"So are you like...an alien?" Hank asked.

"Yes...to you I am", the Doctor replied.

"Always thought your lot was green", Timothy muttered.

"Nah...not us. Though I've met a lot of green-skinned races", said the Doctor. Then, realizing something, he grimly added, "Unfortunately, most of them were wiped out in the war".

"The war?" Hank asked. "Again...what war?"

"Time War. Between my people and the Daleks", the Doctor replied. "The last thing I remember, I was on my planet, trying to stop it".

"Your...planet", Timothy said, looking somewhat dazed, as though unable to fully process anything that he was seeing or hearing.

"Yes", the Doctor replied. "I was in _my _barn...and the next thing I know is that I wake up in _your _barn, and I've got a new face. So that means, something really bad happened. Something which killed...me". He paused, trying to orient himself fully to the idea that the man he had been, the warrior he had been, was gone. And in his place was...him. Whoever the hell 'he' was!

"Are you saying you...came back to life?" Hank asked.

"Sort off, yeah" the Doctor replied. "But now I need to find out what happened". He looked at the other two. "Look, normally I wouldn't mind letting humans along...but I'm afraid where I'm going, things might be a little too dangerous...so if you'll wouldn't mind stepping out for a bit?"

"Um, sure", Hank said. "Come on, dad", he said, gesturing his father out. It was just as well, Timothy looked like he was on the verge of fainting.

The father-son duo stepped outside the TARDIS and the doors shut behind them. The Doctor turned to the controls and entered the co-ordinates he knew as well as his real name. The co-ordinates he had once tried as hard to forget as he had tried to forget his real name...but which he was never completely able to escape.

10-0-11-00:02

The TARDIS came to life and like a moth drawn to a flame, rushed towards its home-world. _Their _home-world.

o o o

Emptiness.

That's what he was confronted by. Emptiness. The stark blackness of space.

No Dalek ships. No Time Lord defences. No Gallifrey.

Nothing.

Some scattered debris, which the TARDIS indicated were Dalek remains. But nothing else. No trace of the Time Lords.

Almost as though they'd ceased to exist.

The Doctor checked the co-ordinates. Once, twice, thrice...he raged at the console, crying in despair.

It changed nothing.

Gallifrey was gone.

And the ominous words, spoken by another voice, _his _voice, reverberated through the TARDIS and his entire being.

"No more...NO MORE".

o o o

He didn't know how long he drifted in space and time. A few hours. A few months. Maybe even centuries.

When he gathered himself to check the internal clock, it turned out to have been a little over four days.

Four days was barely a fraction of an instant for a Time Lord. Scarcely enough time to contemplate the sheer magnitude of what had happened. Of what _he _had done.

For he remembered now the last actions of his previous incarnation. He remembered breaking into Omega Arsenal. Stealing the Moment. He remembered the long trek to the desert. To the barn. He remembered looking for a big red button...the button that would end it all. Time Lords and Daleks alike.

That was the last thing he remembered.

And now...Gallifrey was gone. The Daleks were gone.

The Time War was over.

There was just him. Him...and the emptiness of space.

Space had once represented to him the great escape of infinite possibilities. Now it was just...space. Empty.

He hated the emptiness. Hated the stars that seemed to wink at him as though they knew the greatest joke of the universe. Hated the damn TARDIS and its intolerable wheezing. Hated this new body, this fit _healthy _new body that kept him tethered to life in pain.

He needed to get away from it all. He needed to get away and...stop. Just stop.

No more drifting. There was nowhere left to go anyway. Nothing for him out there.

He set the time-space co-ordinates...


	4. Ch 3 - Sole Survivor

**Rebirth of the Doctor**

**Chapter 3 – Sole Survivor**

When he stepped outside the TARDIS, and into the barn (he tried not to think about how much it looked like _his _barn), he found Hank standing there.

"I knew it'd be you", he said.

"I'm...sorry", said the Doctor stepping out. "Not sure how long it's been...for you".

"Well...you disappeared around eleven in the morning...so I guess that makes it about nine hours", Hank said. "My dad fainted. Almost thought I'd faint too".

"Well...sorry about that", the Doctor said.

"Where _did _you go?" Hank asked.

"Back to...back to the battlefield", the Doctor said. "The war's over".

"Oh...well, that's good isn't it?" Hank asked.

The Doctor stood staring blankly at him before he added morosely, "I'm the only one who made it".

"You mean...?" Hank began but the Doctor cut him off. "Everyone else died. _Everyone_. The enemy. My people. My planet's just...gone".

Hank stood there, unsure of what to say. Then, hesitantly, "I'm...sorry".

The Doctor gave a brief, almost curt, nod of acknowledgement. "I was...wondering if I could stay? A few days. Just need to...get my bearings". He jerked a thumb towards the TARDIS. "Getting a little sick of being in there".

"Right...sure", Hank said.

o o o

Dinner was...a strange affair. To say the least.

Timothy was quiet. Almost to the point of not being present. He was trying his best to ignore the reality of the fact that an _alien _was at his dinner table. An alien who owned a blue phone box that was bigger on the inside and could disappear.

Hank, for his part, was pleasantly surprised to learn how well-versed the Doctor was with sixties culture, albeit British more than American.

"You spend a lot of time across the Atlantic?" Hank asked.

"Well yes, as a matter of fact", the Doctor replied. "I used to live in London, actually. Was my first home on your planet".

"You used to _live _here?" Hank asked.

"Yes. A _long _time ago", the Doctor replied. Then, realizing something, he added, "Well, long time from _my _point of view. Actually, I'm there right now. In London, I mean. Living in an old junkyard with my grand-daughter!" He gave a brief laugh.

"You have a...grand-daughter?" Hank asked, clearly shocked that a man who didn't look a day over forty at most, had a grand-daughter.

"Yes. Well, _had_ maybe. I honestly dunno anymore" the Doctor's mood turned morose again. _Don't think about it_, he told himself. _Concentrate on the present...concentrate on the dinner_.

"I've lived many lives", he said, continuing the conversation. Anything but the time for quiet contemplation. _Anything_. "I have thirteen lives. Every time I reach the end of one life...I regenerate. Become a new man. With a new face. I've just started my...tenth life, I think". He shrugged. "One loses count", he added, sounding as though it were the most normal thing in the world to lose count of how many lives one has lived.

"So why did you first come here? To earth I mean?" Hank asked.

"Honestly...I was on the run. I wanted to see the universe. I ended up here and my grand-daughter liked it, so we stayed quiet a bit. But then some of your lot found us out, and we had to leave, and I started travelling again", he continued. "But I kept coming back here. Most of my travelling companions have been humans. Humans", he added. "What a wonderful race you'll are. A bunch of apes who've barely learned to walk...and already you're striving for great things".

"Why...thank you! I guess", Hank laughed. "God...it's still weird...to actually think there's an _alien _sitting in my house, talking about 'humans'".

"It takes a little getting used to", the Doctor said.

"So...you said your...box. It's a time machine as well right?" Hank asked.

"Yeah", the Doctor replied.

"So you've been to the future? The future of earth I mean. The human race", Hank said.

"Yes I have" the Doctor said. "Don't ask me to give you any specifics though...not about the near future anyway".

"No...no. I'd rather _not _know" said Hank. "I was just...curious. I mean...what does it feel like, being able to go to any point in history? Meet anyone in the past...learn anyone's future. It must be difficult not to feel like a God".

"Well I try _not _to play God", the Doctor said. _Except when you do_ a nagging voice at the back of his head told him. He ignored it.

"But isn't it tempting to...you know. Change history? Undo your mistakes? Save people who died?" Hank asked.

"It is...but...I know better than anyone why that can't be done". He paused and added, "Or shouldn't".

Hank opened his mouth to continue but the Doctor cut him off "Look...what just happened. It can't be undone. It's...much more complicated than just changing history. You wouldn't understand if I spent years explaining it to you". Realizing he might have been a tad harsh, he added, "Many of _my _people don't entirely understand some of these subtleties".

Timothy got up and took his plate to the kitchen. He seemed to be a man sleep-walking. The Doctor wondered whether Timothy would, in the days to follow, actually come to believe that he was dreaming about his alien visitor. Clearly, his son was _far _more open-minded than him.

"So what _will _you do now?" Hank asked. "After you leave here I mean".

"I...I dunno. I've been travelling for...centuries now. Nearly all my lives. I suppose I'll get back to it eventually", the Doctor said, contemplating the possibility for the first time. "I've got...four lives left. Including this one. Many more centuries. Even millennia if I stay out of too much trouble". He sighed. "Thousands and thousands of years of utter boredom. Imagine that!"

"Its...funny", he continued, and suddenly he began laughing. He couldn't stop it...he began laughing uncontrollably. "I stole a TARDIS and ran away because I was tired off the lot of them. The Time Lords! And now...they're all gone. I'm the _last _one!" He laughed again. "I'm the LAST one!" He laughed hysterically.

Hank stood up. "I think maybe...you need some rest".

The Doctor was still laughing while Hank dragged him up to the spare bedroom and eased him into the bed.

Intermittently through the night, he was awakened again by the sound of the alien's laughter. Or was it sobbing? Perhaps it _was _sobbing. That made more sense. If indeed, there was _any _sense to be had in the Doctor's situation.


End file.
